Poll: Why doesn't Ford communicate with their customers about missed promisses

[azerik]

He’d make three trips to the hardware store to find jusssst the right part

"Gaw damn it. Someone put the metric hammers in the SAE bin again!"

Sponsored

 

[YunniorO]

No offense, but I don’t want engineers making high-level decisions.

I wouldn’t either, I was just making the point that blaming the employees that have zero control over high-level decisions makes no sense.

 

[available_username2]

What irritates me though is the lack of communication. I never expected Ford to perfect the OTA process with the first gen MME, but like how hard is it to just send an email communicating that there are issues and they’re working on it?

Also the few times we actually did get communication, we had to find it on a forum post, no emails and no notices in the FordPass app like they did when they initially set expectations that we would see it by end of summer.

I probably wouldn’t care as much if this wasn’t a subscription feature that ford is charging more for than any other subscription I pay for.

Lastly, I’m sure Fords excuse for it is that we wouldn’t understand, but that’s bs. Nobody is going to complain about being informed even if they don’t understand it all. Most of us would probably flock here and have someone explain it to us in toddler terms anyways.

I don’t blame Ford engineers either. They’re probably not given the proper resources they need.

yeah if they don't give three years from when I get 1.4 I'm going to get pissed. for now I'll wait.

 

[Graction]

Why don’t they just let us participate in their sprint planning and daily scrum calls? We are the customer after all. This is ridiculous ?

 

[Mach Al]

As long as they extend the subscription for the time it takes for the release, all will be forgiven.

 

[bbulkow]

Could it really be any worse than the criticism they’re already getting for missing their expected release by almost half a year? We all already know there’s issues, I feel like they really can’t do any more damage than what’s already done.

*REALLY* ?

[ FLIGHT OF FANTASY FOLLOWS ]

" let's see, we thought the software was working pretty well, but we put it on the michigan test track and found after 3 hours of continuous driving that every car had a catastrophic failure and burst into flames. Two test drivers were hospitalized, we had to do the rest of the engineering determination with robotic drivers, it only reproduces on a track. It's also unlikely in the real world, because you have to hold a variable 40mph pace with a precise form of sinusoidal variation, and freeway speeds won't trigger it. We finally tracked down the bug to a cascade of several bugs in the BMS and throttle control subsystems. The reason our automated unit tests didn't catch the problems is an intern had disabled them about 6 months ago, and no one noticed, which is how several bugs stacked up. We're going to have a lockdown for at least a month until the automated tests pass again. We're retraining the models, which takes another two months, then we have to restart the test processes, which take another two months, but we also realized that we probably should fix the underlying throttle problems, because a human *could* do the same thing and cause cars to burst into flames even if it was staggeringly unlikely they would execute the same kind of sinusoidal throttle control that the new BC system does primarily. We'll probably have to retrain the models again, because we're severely overfitting, and we're looking forward to hiring a group that knows more about AI than the current group. We also enabled automated testing, which caught dozens of bugs across most of the modules, which is why we had to do so many updates. Please take a look at our current job openings if you'd like to get BC out sooner! "

You honestly think a story like that is better than saying nothing????

 

[TheSteelRider]

In Ford's defense, they said that they will release it "soon." Some of us assume (and you know what that mean) that it was to be release in 2023.

NO, they specifically indicated in their July posting, "later this summer" meaning summer '23.

Our team at Ford is continuing to improve BlueCruise to make hands-free highway driving even better for you. We have a pleasant surprise for our Mustang Mach-E customers. We are delivering our latest software version of BlueCruise – BlueCruise 1.3 – even faster than anticipated.

• BlueCruise 1.2: Includes Lane Change Assist allowing you to change lanes by tapping the turn signal and once the path is clear and In-Lane Repositioning which helps keep the vehicle in its lane while subtly shifting position away from vehicles in adjacent lanes
• BlueCruise 1.3: Building on the previous version with all of the features of BlueCruise 1.2, it will help you stay engaged in hands-free mode longer including around curves and narrow lanes.

Mustang Mach-E customers with model years 2021-2023 equipped with BlueCruise can receive the update to BlueCruise 1.3 via a Ford Power-Up software update once it starts to roll out to vehicles later this summer. This means that vehicles with BlueCruise 1.0 and 1.2 will be updated to BlueCruise 1.3. Note, Ford Power-Up software updates are not deployed to all vehicles at the same time and this update will happen in waves.

To ensure you get this update and all the other latest and greatest software updates to your vehicle, make sure you:

1. Turn ON Automatic Software Updates – this keeps updates coming as they roll out
2. Set a recurring schedule –choose what is most convenient so you never miss a software update

For Mustang Mach-E customers who placed an order after May 2, 2023, or the vehicle was produced after June 30, 2023, your new electric pony will be delivered from the factory with BlueCruise 1.3.

Cheers to the next version of hands-free highway driving rolling out!

 

[iahgva]

Much ado about nothing. Get a life, people.

I sooo agree, I even did not know about BC 1.4…??? I am quite happy with whatever BC version I have

 

[Ghost Ryder]

I sooo agree, I even did not know about BC 1.4…??? I am quite happy with whatever BC version I have

I have BC 1.0 And it's unusable because it likes to hug the right side of the lane. That's a no go in So Cal. where everyone hugs the left side of the lane. You're asking for a collision at that point. Otherwise it functions well. I would like a functioning feature that I paid for.

 

[richsi]

I don't know about that. Rivian does a pretty good job with updating their software.

Having had the car for 2 years now, I find that the updates breaks more things than it fixes.

I've had a Tesla M3P since Nov. 23 and have had 4 over the air updates! They last 25 mins or so. Now they have their act together, just saying!

 

[kdonnel]

I believe the majority of customers have no idea that any promised dates have been missed.

Those that participate in an internet message board are not the average Ford owner.

 

[YunniorO]

*REALLY* ?

[ FLIGHT OF FANTASY FOLLOWS ]

" let's see, we thought the software was working pretty well, but we put it on the michigan test track and found after 3 hours of continuous driving that every car had a catastrophic failure and burst into flames. Two test drivers were hospitalized, we had to do the rest of the engineering determination with robotic drivers, it only reproduces on a track. It's also unlikely in the real world, because you have to hold a variable 40mph pace with a precise form of sinusoidal variation, and freeway speeds won't trigger it. We finally tracked down the bug to a cascade of several bugs in the BMS and throttle control subsystems. The reason our automated unit tests didn't catch the problems is an intern had disabled them about 6 months ago, and no one noticed, which is how several bugs stacked up. We're going to have a lockdown for at least a month until the automated tests pass again. We're retraining the models, which takes another two months, then we have to restart the test processes, which take another two months, but we also realized that we probably should fix the underlying throttle problems, because a human *could* do the same thing and cause cars to burst into flames even if it was staggeringly unlikely they would execute the same kind of sinusoidal throttle control that the new BC system does primarily. We'll probably have to retrain the models again, because we're severely overfitting, and we're looking forward to hiring a group that knows more about AI than the current group. We also enabled automated testing, which caught dozens of bugs across most of the modules, which is why we had to do so many updates. Please take a look at our current job openings if you'd like to get BC out sooner! "

You honestly think a story like that is better than saying nothing????

I hope you’re being sarcastic, because this is probably the most irrational and made-up excuse I’ve ever heard anyone make for Ford.

I don’t let in fantasy or fairy tale land, but feel free to keep living in it.

Nobody is expecting to be told a story like that (if it wasn’t just completely made up and pulled out of thin air), a simple email stating “we’re experiencing some issues, we appreciate your patience” and so on would suffice - so why you’re making up stories is beyond me. Some people already feel like Ford is just going to abandon early MYs due to the lack of communication, those people just need basic reassurance.

Don’t you work for a SaaS company? When has your company ever communicated with customers to that level? Probably never. You can’t sit here and actually think ANYONE was expecting to receive that level of communication from Ford. It sounds like you just made an assumption that’s what I was asking for.

 

[BMT1071]

I believe the majority of customers have no idea that any promised dates have been missed.

Those that participate in an internet message board are not the average Ford owner.

I'm pretty sure those emails Ford sent us announcing the update didn't only go to forum members.

 

[kdonnel]

I'm pretty sure those emails Ford sent us announcing the update didn't only go to forum members.

In my experience, people don’t pay much attention to their email.

In her job my wife is always dealing with people who complain they did not receive an email. When she says what email it was sent to their response is I don’t check that one. Yet it is the email they provided.

Members of this forum are not the average Ford customer.

 

[HuntingPudel]

No offense, but I don’t want engineers making high-level decisions. Engineers are good at getting down in the weeds. Which is important. But it also easily leads to getting bogged down and losing sight of priorities. My ex-father in law was an engineer. He’d make three trips to the hardware store to find jusssst the right part to fix a problem when “good enough” was truly good enough.

Engineers also aren’t known for, let’s say common sense solutions. Like I’m sure to an engineer, it makes sense to nest the trunk button under settings. But it’s dumb.
<SNIP>

Wow. According to one of my mentors, a big portion of engineering is about compromise. Sometimes the compromise is cost, sometimes it’s weight, sometimes it’s code bloat, sometimes it’s speed. How the compromise happens and its direction are dependent on the project’s priorities. ?‍?

Sponsored